About the Kuler panel

The Kuler™ panel is your portal to groups of colors, or
themes, created by an online community of designers. You can use
it to browse thousands of themes on Kuler™, and then download some
to edit or to include in your own projects. You can also use the
Kuler panel to create and save themes, and then share them with the
Kuler community by uploading them.

The Kuler panel is available in Adobe Photoshop® CS5, Adobe Flash®
Professional CS5, Adobe InDesign® CS5, Adobe Illustrator® CS5, and
Adobe Fireworks® CS5. The panel is not available in the French versions
of these products.

Filter the search results by selecting an option from the
pop-up menus above the results.

View a theme online on Kuler

In the Browse panel, select a theme in the search
results.

Click the triangle on the right side of the theme and select
View Online in Kuler.

Saving frequent searches

Select the Custom option in the first pop-up menu
in the Browse panel.

In the dialog box that opens, enter your search terms and
save them.

When you want to run the search, select it from the first pop-up
menu.

To delete a saved search, select the Custom option in the pop-up
menu. Then clear the searches you want to delete, and click Save.

Working with themes

You can use the Kuler panel to create or edit themes, and
include them in your projects.

Note: In Illustrator, you create and edit themes with the Edit Color/Recolor
Artwork dialog box, rather than the Create panel. For details, see
Illustrator Help.

Add a theme to the Swatches panel of your application

In the Browse panel, select a theme you want to
use.

Click the triangle on the right side of the theme and select
Add To Swatches Panel.

You can also add a theme from the Create
panel by clicking the Add Selected Theme To Swatches button.

Edit a theme

In the Browse panel, locate a theme you want to
edit and then double-click the theme in the search results. The
theme opens in the Create panel.

In the Create panel, edit the theme using the tools at your
disposal. For more information, see the Create Panel Tools topic
that follows.

Do one of the following:

Save your theme by
clicking the Save Theme button.

Add the theme to your application’s Swatches panel by clicking
the Add To Swatches Panel button at the bottom of the panel.

Upload the theme to the Kuler service by clicking the Upload
button at the bottom of the panel.

Create panel tools

The Create panel provides a variety of tools to create
or edit themes.

Select a harmony rule from the Select Rule pop-up menu.
The harmony rule uses the base color as the basis for generating
the colors in the color group. For example, if you choose a blue
base color and the Complementary harmony rule, a color group is
created using the base color, blue, and its complement, red.

Select the Custom rule to create a theme using free-form
adjustments.

Manipulate the colors in the color wheel. As you make your
adjustments, the selected harmony rule continues to govern the colors
generated for the color group.

Move the Brightness slider beside the wheel to adjust the
color brightness.

Set the base color by dragging the Base color marker (the
largest, double-ringed color marker) around the wheel. You can also
set the base color by adjusting the color sliders at the bottom
of the dialog box.

Set one of the four other colors in the color group as the
base color. Select the color’s swatch and click the bull’s-eye button
below the color group.

Set the host application’s foreground/background color or
stroke/fill color as the base color. Click one of the first two
buttons below the color group.

Remove a color from the color group by selecting the color’s
swatch and clicking the Remove Color button below the color group.
Add a new color by selecting an empty color swatch and clicking
the Add Color button.

Try different color effects by selecting a new harmony rule
and by moving the markers in the color wheel.

Double-click any of the swatches in the color group to set
the active color (foreground/background or stroke/fill) in your
application. If the application doesn't have an active or selected
color feature, the Kuler panel sets the foreground color or the
fill color as appropriate.